Efficient long-distance power transmission is necessary as the world continues to implement renewable energy sources, often sited in remote areas. Light, strong, high-conductivity materials are desirable for this application to reduce both construction and operational costs. In this study an Al/Ca (11.5% vol.) composite with nano-filamentary reinforcement was produced by powder metallurgy then extruded, swaged, and wire drawn to a maximum true strain of 12.7. The tensile strength increased exponentially as the filament size was reduced to the sub-micron level. In an effort to improve the conductor's ability to operate at elevated temperatures, the deformation-processed wires were heat-treated at 260°C to transform the Ca-reinforcing filaments to Al 2Ca. In conclusion, such a transformation raised the tensile strength by as much as 28%, and caused little change in ductility, while the electrical conductivity was reduced by only 1% to 3%. Al/Al 2Ca composites are compared to existing conductor materials to show how implementation could affect installation and performance.

@article{osti_1464478,
title = {Deformation processed Al/Ca nano-filamentary composite conductors for HVDC applications},
author = {Czahor, C. F. and Anderson, I. E. and Riedemann, T. M. and Russell, A. M.},
abstractNote = {Efficient long-distance power transmission is necessary as the world continues to implement renewable energy sources, often sited in remote areas. Light, strong, high-conductivity materials are desirable for this application to reduce both construction and operational costs. In this study an Al/Ca (11.5% vol.) composite with nano-filamentary reinforcement was produced by powder metallurgy then extruded, swaged, and wire drawn to a maximum true strain of 12.7. The tensile strength increased exponentially as the filament size was reduced to the sub-micron level. In an effort to improve the conductor's ability to operate at elevated temperatures, the deformation-processed wires were heat-treated at 260°C to transform the Ca-reinforcing filaments to Al2Ca. In conclusion, such a transformation raised the tensile strength by as much as 28%, and caused little change in ductility, while the electrical conductivity was reduced by only 1% to 3%. Al/Al2Ca composites are compared to existing conductor materials to show how implementation could affect installation and performance.},
doi = {10.1088/1757-899X/219/1/012014},
journal = {IOP Conference Series. Materials Science and Engineering},
number = ,
volume = 219,
place = {United States},
year = {2017},
month = {8}
}

Light, strong materials with high conductivity are desired for many applications such as power transmission conductors, fly-by-wire systems, and downhole power feeds. However, it is difficult to obtain both high strength and high conductivity simultaneously in a material. In this study, an Al/Ca (20 vol%) nanofilamentary metal-metal composite was produced by powder metallurgy and severe plastic deformation. Fine Ca metal powders (~200 µm) were produced by centrifugal atomization, mixed with pure Al powder, and deformed by warm extrusion, swaging, and wire drawing to a true strain of 12.9. The Ca powder particles became fine Ca nanofilaments that reinforce the compositemore » substantially by interface strengthening. The conductivity of the composite is slightly lower than the rule-of-mixtures prediction due to minor quantities of impurity inclusions. As a result, the elevated temperature performance of this composite was also evaluated by differential scanning calorimetry and resistivity measurements.« less

Copper-based high strength and high electrical conductivity nano-composite wires reinforced by Nb nano-tubes are prepared by severe plastic deformation, applied with an Accumulative Drawing and Bundling process (ADB), for the windings of high pulsed magnets. The ADB process leads to a multi-scale Cu matrix containing up to N = 85{sub 4} (52.2.10{sup 6}) continuous parallel Nb tubes with diameter down to few tens nano-meters. After heavy strain, the Nb nano-tubes exhibit a homogeneous microstructure with grain size below 100 nm. The Cu matrix presents a multi-scale microstructure with multi-modal grain size distribution from the micrometer to the nano-meter range. Themore » use of complementary characterization techniques at the microscopic and macroscopic level (in-situ tensile tests in the TEM, nano-indentation, in-situ tensile tests under high energy synchrotron beam) shed light on the interest of the multi-scale nature of the microstructure to achieve extreme mechanical properties, therefore allowing for design guidelines to further improve these properties. (authors)« less

An Al-9 vol% Ca composite was produced by powder metallurgy and deformation processing. The Al–Ca composite was extruded, swaged and wire drawn to a deformation true strain of 13.8. Both Al and Ca are face-centered cubic, so the Ca second phase deformed into continuous, nearly cylindrical filaments in the Al matrix. The formation of intermetallic compounds, filament coarsening, and spheriodization at elevated temperature was observed by scanning electron microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and X-ray diffraction. Both the thickness and spacing of the Ca filaments decreased exponentially with increasing deformation. The ultimate tensile strength of the composite increased rapidly with increasedmore » deformation, especially at high deformation processing strains. The relation between deformation true strain and ultimate tensile strength is underestimated by the rule of mixtures; a modified Hall–Petch barrier strengthening model was found to fit the data better.« less